diff --git a/cucul/Makefile.am b/cucul/Makefile.am
index 1caf70a..e030d75 100644
--- a/cucul/Makefile.am
+++ b/cucul/Makefile.am
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ libcucul_la_SOURCES = \
 	cucul_internals.h \
 	buffer.c \
 	canvas.c \
+	error.c \
 	transform.c \
 	charset.c \
 	colour.c \
diff --git a/cucul/cucul.h b/cucul/cucul.h
index 179232a..4ec442d 100644
--- a/cucul/cucul.h
+++ b/cucul/cucul.h
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ extern "C"
 {
 #endif
 
-/** \e libcucul context */
+/** \e libcucul canvas */
 typedef struct cucul_canvas cucul_canvas_t;
 /** dither structure */
 typedef struct cucul_dither cucul_dither_t;
@@ -79,6 +79,18 @@ void cucul_free_canvas(cucul_canvas_t *);
 int cucul_rand(int, int);
 /*  @} */
 
+/** \defgroup error libcucul error management
+ *
+ *  These functions provide simple error management routines.
+ *
+ *  @{ */
+#define ECUCUL_NOMEM (100)
+#define ECUCUL_INVAL (101)
+#define ECUCUL_RANGE (102)
+int cucul_errno(void);
+char const *cucul_strerr(int);
+/*  @} */
+
 /** \defgroup buffer libcucul buffer handling
  *
  *  These functions provide methods to handle libcucul buffers.
diff --git a/cucul/error.c b/cucul/error.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d49d33f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cucul/error.c
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/*
+ *  libcucul      Canvas for ultrafast compositing of Unicode letters
+ *  Copyright (c) 2002-2006 Sam Hocevar <sam@zoy.org>
+ *                All Rights Reserved
+ *
+ *  $Id$
+ *
+ *  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ *  modify it under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To
+ *  Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See
+ *  http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/COPYING for more details.
+ */
+
+/*
+ *  This file contains error management functions.
+ */
+
+#include "config.h"
+#include "common.h"
+
+#include "cucul.h"
+#include "cucul_internals.h"
+
+int cucul_errno(void)
+{
+    return _cucul_errno;
+}
+
+char const *cucul_strerror(int error)
+{
+    switch(error)
+    {
+        case 0:
+            return "no error";
+        case ECUCUL_NOMEM:
+            return "not enough memory";
+        case ECUCUL_INVAL:
+            return "invalid argument";
+        case ECUCUL_RANGE:
+            return "argument out of bounds";
+        default:
+            return "unknown error";
+    }
+}
+